San Jose^2

Kieran and Denise's Blog of their adventure in Costa Rica.
Start reading from the bottom if you want it to make sense.

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Body Pump Instructor training notes from video evaluation

Here are notes for my fellow instructors who took Body Pump training this weekend at the Decathalon club in Santa Clara, CA. I didn't have all the names but the individuals should be able to figure out which exercise they did and then map the notes to them.

I should note that I registered www.bodyopen.org today. I am hoping to launch an online community for raving fans of Body Training Systems. If anybody is interested in being a member of this online community please post a comment and let me know to update you when it comes online.

Next squat
Knees are too far forward-joint starts to slide.
Needs to sit back a little.
Heels are lifting a little.
Feet are pretty wide.
Knees are moving wide instead of forward.
Correction: Just needs to stick but further back, push elbows forward

Donna-Chest
Elbow is behind the wrist.

Peggy-Chest
Go on the floor to reset bio-feedback
Listen to the music slow down.

Me-Kieran
Bar positioning good
Knee goes to forward, move body back.
Good visual with the arm.
Timing is an issue.
Knee improves.

next-lunges
Great positioning.
Knew her choreography
Move bar to the other side.

Next-amy
Great instructions.
Told us about extra equipment.
Change in voice, voice is corresponding
Little in behind in shoulder.
Chin offered head.

Laurie
Changes foot position drastically between row and press.
Bar is too far forward.
Head stays in line with spine.
There’s a jump in there.
Shouldwidth-a little close
Targetting below the knee-should be at knee
Same speed both ways.
Great job.

Silvia- Bad hamstring.
Forward flexion
But other times-knees lock, and other times ankles are good.
Need to come straight up.

Sunday Round 2
Laurie and Amy
Great start. Physical Execution. Explaining the four exercises.
Warm-up is usually in the same order. Squat to lunge. Lunge to overhead press.

Amy
Great preques,
Target right on.
great queing,

Laurie-maybe a little less squat.
-Target was right on.
-knee stays over the ankle
Great power down.

Suzanne-smooth down, great voice at the end, take them home.
Big thing hand placement. When you open hand it loads in the wrong place. Curl
Cradle the bar, don’t strangle it.
Drops down a little too far.

Silvia-
Grip should be wider, left wrist bent. Forearms bent in.
Counting the heck of it.
Less talking all over.
placement off because of hand placement.

Peggy
Grasshopper legs- elbows driving back.
At end the timing got a wee bit off.
Nice head position.
Beautiful!
She really hears the music and waits for it. Probably nerves.

Jim-
Engaging you all over the place, right there with you. Pretty much a man.
Everything rock solid, timing was good.
Little drop.
If your queues aren’t working, change
Jim can’t curve his back due to surgery.

biceps
Jennifer-Nice alignment, elbow to stripe.
Pants are baggy, because you can’t see knee.
Great toe tapping.
Great halfways.
Missed whole set of halfways.
Need to change stance, but has healing broken bone.

Michelle-great instruction
This track lends itself to be being done. People felt they were part of an experience.
The problem is it becomes less athletic.
Elbows are coming forward just a touch.
Make sure you are having fun.

Lunges
Frank-timing was better. Great weight, forward lean.
Just an imperceptible little rush. A little bit off. Tiny bit of forward lean.
Engaging really well. Much more easy going.
not much pressure in feet, stay loaded in legs.
Needs to stretch hip flexors, he rolls out.

Willi-
Break it in half, great pre-queing.
Engaging. Very confident in choreography.
He brought you into the experience.
Load issues. Stay loaded.
Performance-little shoulder shake.

Shoulders
-wall anlogie
-Elbows a little far.
Plates should come down behind heel.
Great range,
Hands will move in, should be in set position.

Kieran
Timing off
lean more forward, maintain forward. Probably because o f.
timnig was good for pulses.
Elbows were too high in rise, plates too high. Keep elbows forward of mid line.
Stance is narrow.
Move to stance, because
Little fast.
Weights are an option.
First one, elbows went behind.

Chest again
Got a combination of things
Good instruction, no wrinkles in wrist.

Next Chest again.
-Shoulders off
-Over the heart, great instruction.
-Right on with bottom.
-Right elbow not extended.

Friday, January 28, 2005

Body Pump Scripts

This is a set of scripts from the Body Pump instructor training class I am taking this weekend. Scripts are little phrases that give your class members audio cues as what to do next.
If you have some more scripts please add them in the comments and link to this page from your blog.

Chest
Goal Post
Elbows no longer
Create Clevage
Do not Cross feet
No locking elbows at top
Neutral Spine
Nipples!

Back- Clean’N press, Dead Lift, Dead Rows
“Raise the Roof”
Take it upstairs/downstairs
To the knees and squeeze
Shave your legs with the bar
No camel backs
Ski jumps, not speed bumps

Biceps
Chunk it up
Time to work the guns
Time to tighten the wings
Linda Hamilton/Angela Bassett/Hilary Swank arms
Let’s pump it up.
Time to fire up the guns
Bottom half under the table.
Don’t eat the bar.

Monday, December 20, 2004

Arrived in Ottawa: 80 Degree F drop

Well, we didn't have a great trip. We got up at 6:45AM to catch the 8AM Caltrain to Millbrae. Denise packed one of my bags. It had an additional two bottles of wine, so the morning jog over to the Caltrain was a real heart thumper.

We got to the Continental counter around 9:30. I had put on my watch for the first time in months for this trip. Around 9:55 I started panicking because I thought it was 10:55AM. I started telling the continental passenger rustler we were going to miss our flight. I felt really stupid when Denise told me we had over an hour to catch out plane.

Our plane left late from SFO. So we had to haul across a couple terminals at Newark. I carried all the bags and Denise ran ahead to hold the gate. When I got there they were getting ready to close the gate , but Denise wasn't there. She had seen people waiting for the next flight, and decided to go to the bathroom!

When we got on the plane, a french Canadian woman returning from Quiznos University was on the plane. She had been drinking. It was so painful listening to her classless loud conversation that I was hoping the plane would crash. Denise and I were covering our ears with our hands.
When we arrived in Ottawa there was no gate. Unfortunately, my jacket was stowed in the hold so I had to go outside in -22C weather. It was cold.

My brother, Shannon, met us at the gate with a giant coat for Denise.

We got home to my Dad's soon and had some simple dinner before heading to bed early. I stayed up and debugged my new web site for a while.

Funagain Games: Product Award List

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

SJ Rep-Tuesday's with Morrie

I have been going to SJ Rep consistently for a couple
years. We enjoy going because it's a different form or entertainment,
and we believe it's important to experience community arts.

Typically we are so so on the plays at the SJ Rep and to a certain
extent so is the audience. This sunday we went to see Tuesdays with
Morey. It was a captivating play written by the Mitch Albom, the
author of Tuesdays with Morey, and the 13 time winner of #1 Sports
Columnist in the Nation by the sports editors of America.

What was different about this play is the audience laughed deeply and
openly 20-30 times. I looked around and everyone was laughing. At
the end, the theater was sobbing. However, you feel about the
material there's no denying the comic timming and dramatic intensity
of the actors on stage.

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Photos moved

I'll have to relink the photo's in the blog because I moved everything once pixagogo's trial expired. Post a comment and I'll recieve and email if you want to read the posts with the pictures. I'll be more motivated if I believe someone is actually reading the blog and wanting to see the photos.

Monday, August 30, 2004

San Jose to San Jose

We had a nice breakfast on the lagoon. I saw our plane fly overhead and suggested to Denise that we better hustle to get to the airport. When we arrived the plane looked full and they seem hesitant to even wait for us even though we were 20 minutes early. We got on board and they started the engines and readied for take off. Just then a boat pulled up and the resort guide manuevered around the propellars to negotiate with the captain to let his guests on.

We spent the day in San Jose wandering around the downtown and visiting the National History Museum. It was good museum with a very rich history and collection of items demonstrating the anthropology of the people who settled Costa Rica. We spent some time in an internet cafe, and enjoyed some good food and shopping before heading to the airport.

Well we are back now if you want to drop us a line. I'll be moving the pictures to somewhere more permanent so let me know if you want to see more of them.

Canoeing the rainforest, Eh?

The two Canadians, Ross and I, and Denise got up 4:45AM to get ready for our Canoe trip. Viktor's father was very sick and since he was looking after the hotel we helped him settle the bill as he rushed to catch the earliest flight out. prepped the giant 8 person canoe and headed off without breakfast. The canals were full of motor boats and their tourists by 6AM.

Shortly after entering the canals, Ross realized that he had left his special expensive binonculars back on the shore. With encouragement from Denise and I we urged him to return to pick them up before the locals woke up. Ross had an earing in one ear and a long pony tail. He explained that he was the descendant of Irish pirates. He also explained that the native Tortuguerans were decendants of pirates as well, and even speculated that thievary should be the national sport. While that wasn't our experience we believed that his 5 years in Tortuguera exposed him to the truer nature of community.

Ross was grateful that we interupted our tour and credited us an additional hour in our tour for returning. He was a fountain of knowledge and we were overwhelmed with his mix of behavioural ecology stories of flora and fauna scientific names. He would point out flowers that were only pollinated by a single type of humminbird. He informed us that half of Costa Ricas mamals were bats and most of them lived in the rain forest. He explained that the forest germinated primarily with large seeds that fell into the water and were washed into shores. He gave us a couple of seeds that were considered good luck. I was sure to hold onto them until we were safely home in San Jose.

He told us that he had discovered a new type of Orchid, but that there were over 35, 000 types of Orchids and that a serious botanist would not rush to publish finding a new Orchid. He even stopped at a fallen branch and pointed out 10 different types of Orchid's on the fallen tree branch. The orchids were not what I had come to expect. Instead they were small plants, not parasitic, almost like grasses with or without tiny flowers.

Later that morning we pulled to the shore and got out of the canoe for a walk around the rainforest floor. Denise was of course thrilled to getting touched by random things ;-) He pointed out monkey droppings and the tracks of a 600 pound Tapir. Denise and I got eaten by mosquitos and so we let Ross wander in his element while we returned to the canoe to get some insect repellent.

We kept paddelling up increasing narrow canals and through tight turns with rapid currents. The canoe was just too large and Denise and I were too inconsistent in our paddeling to be predicatable. As a result, we kept crashing into trees and hanging foilage which on one occasion deposited a spider on Denise. Shortly after that we stopped for a break and then decided to turn around. Denise's elbow was hurting and so she was paddeling sporadically and I was paddeling too hard. As a result, the canoe was girating wildly in the streams. I took Denise's paddle and moved it up front in an effort to achieve some consistency. She protested briefly, but was happy to chaffeured by paddle.

On the way back I spotted another caiman, and we got really close. It was Denise's 5 caiman sighting and she was happy to get as close as she did. Ross and I got talking and he started telling some great river stories.

The first story was about an Israeli tourist who kept swimming in the lagoon. The locals warned him there was a big crocodile but he didn't listen. Each day as he went for a swim the locals started to gather in increasing larger crowds to watch this tourist swim in the lagoon. Finally, one day in front of a large audience an 18 foot crocodile came up and grabbed him. It dragged him down in front of a large crowd. A quick recovery effort was attempted to get his body, but the crocodile protested and came after the body. Unfortunately, they had to kill the crocodile to recover the body for burial. A Darwin award candidate for sure.

The second story was about some tourists in Corcovado national park where we had been before we came to Tortuguera. A couple of hikers were coming to a big river crossing. In front of them was a large group of percaries(sp) a small wild pig like animal. They began crossind as a group and when they got to the middle of the river a group of sharks attacked and ate all the pigs. The tourists waited for a day before attempting to cross the river.

We started getting hungry and so Denise and I picked up our paddles and power stroked back to shore. We been out for a good 5 hours at that point and had really gotten a lot out of $30 guiding fee. We joined Ross for breakfast and ate heartily.

We decided not to hike through the local park and instead visited the Carribean Conservation Corporation Museum which was an excellent display of the local fauna and had some great displays of the Turtle nesting process.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through stores visiting restaurants trying to decided where the best and most authentic carribean meal was to be had. We settled on splitting a dish at a chilean restaurant and I had the world's largest carribean shrimp, which Ross confirmed for me. These shrimp were about 12 inches head to tail, like a small lobster. Hmmm, yum.

We learned that our Turtle guide Viktor's father had passed away at 11 that morning. We headed back to the hotel for an early night and our final day in Costa Rica.